City agrees: Property line not an issue in Catt marina proposal

BOYNE CITY - After months of head-scratching and hand-wringing, it appears that a property line problem a developer thought he had with a proposed marina project was never really a problem at all.

At its regular semi-monthly meeting Tuesday, the Boyne City City Commission voted unanimously to re-affirm a city riparian property line at the end of Water Street it approved in June of 2005. The re-affirmed line is the same one developer Glen Catt thought he was getting when he purchased adjacent lakefront property, known to most as the One Water Street property, in March.

The apparent problem arose in July when Catt received a call from surveyors from Harbor Springs-based Benchmark Engineering informing him the correct riparian line (lake-bottom property line), as recorded, was actually three degrees to the south. The change in property line would have meant that a small portion of the marina Catt proposes to build at the site would have encroached over the city's riparian line. After learning of the change, Catt came to the commission in December seeking an easement that would allow the encroachment over the city's line.

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The city commission held off making a decision so city staff and its attorney could research the matter further.

Both Murray and Cain said all of their research leads them to believe that on June 14, 2005, the commission approved the more northerly riparian line.

The problem, Murray explained, was that the 2005 motion relied strictly on a drawing and did not include coordinates. Based on discussions at that meeting, the commission, noticing the omission, directed staff to attach bearing coordinates to the line. Those coordinates, which were attached the following day, were incorrect.

O'Neil, from Benchmark said since the Dec. 16 meeting his firm "started from scratch" and made its own determination on where riparian lines should be for the entire eastern end of Lake Charlevoix. He said the line his firm came up with was nearly identical (just slightly north) to the line Catt thought he was getting when he bought the property.

Catt also came Tuesday with a proposed "common boundary agreement" that his attorneys and Murray had hastily put together since Friday. Part of the agreement would have set the line at the more northerly location.

The rest of the agreement would have put to rest any lingering questions about the city's ownership of a triangle-shaped piece of property at the end of Water Street and would have granted Catt permission to build his proposed docks up to the riparian line. The commission opted to hold off on deciding on the boundary agreement until its meeting at noon on Jan. 27.

It was unclear before press time today, Wednesday, if Catt still needs the agreement to proceed with the marina project. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality had previously approved the marina proposal, but Army Corps of Engineers approval is still pending.

About 20 citizens attended Tuesday's meeting. Although some, such as Sue Hobbs and Marty Moody, expressed concerns about the project, most, including every member of the commission, spoke in support of it.

Although Catt has not yet submitted any the land-based portions of his development plans to the city, he said Tuesday he hopes to begin work on the project in the fall.